Shakeup Long Over-Due

The shakeup of the country’s security apparatus was long overdue even though it was not far-reaching, considering the spate of ceaseless bombings by Boko Haram in Kaduna and Yobe States in the last few days. It was as if the nation was at war in Kaduna last week.

It did not come as a surprise to most Nigerians when the sack of the National Security Adviser, NSA, General Andrew Owoye Azazi and Defence Minister, Alhaji Bello Haliru Mohammed, was announced by the Presidency on Friday last week.

Many Nigerians had expected that President Goodluck Jonathan, who went to Brazil last week when the country was burning, ought to have given Azazi and Mohammed the boot when he relieved the former Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim of his job following the bombing of the Police Headquarters and the United Nations building both in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

As things are, it appears these key officers had lost grip of the security challenges facing the country and something had to be done very quickly to salvage the deteriorating situation before things got out of hand.

With the appointment of Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd) to replace Gen. Azazi as National Security Adviser, we hope there will be a marked change in the strategy to combat terrorism, kidnapping, oil theft in the creeks of the Niger Delta and other violent crimes that have created fear and shattered the peace in our land.

Many believe that if Jonathan had moved swiftly to contain Boko Haram, when the group reared its ugly head a few years ago, the story would have been different by now. But the group was allowed to mushroom to the extent that it has become a hydra-headed monster difficult to tame.

Since many Nigerians have dismissed the appointment of Dasuki as a cosmetic approach to dealing with a very serious security threat in parts of the north that could snowball into a religious conflagration, President Jonathan and the security chiefs should also go a step further by devising a more pragmatic approach to caging the incubus called Boko Haram.

Nigeria could solicit intelligence support from Israel’s MOSSAD or the United States of America, which only last week, declared two kingpins of the group, Abubakar Shekau and Abubakar Adam Kambar terrorists. The tag underscores the seriousness of the threat the group poses to the peace and stability of this country.

From all indications, the group is not ready for any form of dialogue. So, the Federal Government should find a way of bringing it down on its knees because the blood of over 1,000 people so far killed by the group is crying for justice.